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The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)
| Special = | Appearance = | Also = | Guest = | Co = | With = | Uncredited = | Uncertain = | Producer = Richard Irving | Writer = | Teleplay = Henri Simoun (Howard Rodman) and Steven Bochco (uncredited)MCA/Universal memo to broadcast outlets | Story = Martin Caidin (based on the novel Cyborg) | Director = Richard Irving | Prodfilm =35125 | Prodep=45185 & 45185 | Filmair=7 March 1973 | Epair= | Original = | Prev = | Next = Wine, Women and War | Related = The Deadly Replay }} The Six Million Dollar Man — known in episodic format as "The Moon and the Desert" — was the first televised adventure of Steve Austin. It detailed the crash which rendered Austin's legs, arms and eye useless, and showed at length the operation which restored them. It also explored the psychological ramifications of his being fitted with mechanical implants, issues that would later be echoed in SMDM:"The Bionic Woman". It concluded with Steve's first mission for the organization which authorized his revolutionary surgery. In its original broadcast, The Six Million Dollar Man was a one-off telefilm, produced in late 1972 and early 1973 — about a year prior to the start of the series proper. It was run under the banner of The ABC Wednesday Movie of the Week, more than six months prior to the release of the follow-up, Wine, Women and War. Due to its unique spin on the world of Steve Austin, its fairly extensive re-editing into episodic format, and the general lack of reference to its events by subsequent episodes, it is problematic to place within the continuity of the series. Synopsis Steve Austin, a civilian member of NASA's space program and moon-walk veteran, loses control during a test flight of a new aircraft and crashes. Both his legs, his right arm and left eye are irreparably damaged when his experimental aircraft crash lands on the runway. Meanwhile, the Office of Scientific Operations (OSO) holds a secret meeting overseen by an unidentified woman and a man named Oliver Spencer. Spencer indicates that the OSO has lost too many agents on recent missions, and that a new approach, a new type of agent is needed. Ideally preferring a robot, Spencer says the next best thing - a cyborg - is within the realm of current technological ability. When asked if he will seek a volunteer, Spencer replies that all they need to do is wait for an accident to occur, so that they can "work with scrap." A budget is set for the project: an initial $6 million for set up costs, and about a million a year after that for maintaining it. Later, Spencer views the initial life-saving operations on Austin and learns from Dr. Rudy Wells the extent of the pilot's injuries. Spencer confronts Wells, whose research into the field of bionics has interested the OSO greatly. Spencer offers Wells money and support and a facility in Colorado in order for him to perform the first bionic transplant surgery on Austin. But before the operation can be undertaken, the issue of Austin's mental well-being must be addressed. Upon waking from electrosleep and learning of his injuries, Austin attempts suicide, but is saved by Nurse Jean Manners, although he is initially resentful of her intervention. Soon after, Wells discusses the bionic surgery with Austin, showing him the bionic eye that will restore his sight, and also the work-in-progress bionic arm. Austin refuses to look at it, but Wells tells Austin there is nothing to be frightened of. "This is your arm," he says, soothingly, adding that Austin will also be given two new legs and that with the new arm and legs Austin will be able to hold a woman in his arms again and "if it's what you want, you'll be able to dance with her." What Wells doesn't tell Austin (but tells us, in narration) is that the new limbs will have great strength compared to human limbs, and that the eye has the potential to "transcend normal vision"). During an epic operation (overseen by Spencer), Dr Wells and his team successfully fit Steve with the replacement bionic legs, right arm and left eye. Later, Austin awakes surrounded by Wells and his team. "Dr. Frankenstein, I presume?" is his first words. He then proceeds to move his bionic arm and make a fist with it. However, Steve struggles to come to terms with the seriousness — and particularly the cost — of his "resurrection". What will be required of him once he's fully recovered? One unwitting victim of his initial cynicism is Jean Manners, who has fallen in love with Austin. Meanwhile, Austin begins learning to use his limbs, at first taking literal baby steps, and soon he is running at blurring speed, followed by closed circuit cameras. Spencer declares Austin ready. First, though, Austin is given a chance for some RnR and goes in a picnic with Jean. On the way back to the lab, they find a car that has gone down a ditch, and a frantic mother trying to get her child out. Austin uses his bionic arm to rescue the boy, but the mother treats him like a monster when she sees electronics poking out of a damaged portion of Austin's arm. "What are you?" Depressed, Austin returns to the lab where he speaks to no one while his arm is repaired. Finally, Spencer meets Austin and finally reveals to Austin what the astronaut has known all along - that the price for his rebirth is service to the OSO. "I don't want to kill people," Austin says. "You don't have to," Spencer says. Austin reluctantly agrees to undertake his first mission: to rescue a diplomat from a terrorist camp in Saudi Arabia's "Empty Quarter". In return he requests that Jean be reassigned as he doesn't want to get too close to anybody. Jean, who overhears this, confronts Austin and tells him she loves him. Austin parachutes down many miles from the camp and proceeds to run the distance, his newfound stamina sustaining him through the heat. However, when Steve reaches his destination he learns that the hostage has been dead for several weeks. He begins to work out an escape plan with another hostage (after he's taken prisoner). Back home, Spencer confirms to Wells that Austin has been sent on a combined test/suicide mission to see if he's able to hack it as an agent. If he fails, Spencer says, they can always build a new bionic man. Austin and the second hostage manage to escape the camp (although Austin is unable to avoid killing at least one of the terrorists) by stealing an aircraft. Having sustained damage, he is reunited with Jean before being put into electrosleep once again in order for Wells to repair the damage to his bionics. Spencer asks Wells if it would be feasible to keep Austin asleep indefinitely until he's needed again. "Over my dead body," replies Wells. "It was just an idea - not a bad one at that, eh?" says Spencer with a smile. Naming controversy The fact that it was an adaptatation of Cyborg created some controversy about the film's proper title over the years. It has often been called, Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man,http://imdb.com/title/tt0070700/releaseinfo in part due to the connection to the novel, but also because the initial scene of the original cut of the movie was of a computer defining the term, "cyborg". Hence, "cyborg" was the first word seen in the film, which some viewers interpreted as the "title". Contemporary evidence from newspapers and a Universal press release firmly establish the title as The Six Million Dollar Man. The original film vs. the series The film remains notable for a number of unique attributes which made it distinct from the rest of the televised adventures of Steve Austin. In particular, it was the only 1970s production using Austin which did not also involve showrunner Glen A. Larson in any credited capacity. Like the other so-called "pilot movies", it also did not have Harve Bennett as executive producer. Moreover, it didn't feature Oscar Goldman, nor did the word "bionics" appear at all. Rudy Wells, though present, is portrayed as a much closer friend to Steve than he ever was in the series. And it more directly utilized the talents of Martin Caidin. Not only was the film the only formally credited adaptation of one of his novels, but it also uniquely provided him acknowledgement as technical advisor. In narrative terms, there are several aspects of the original cut of the film that did not carry over into the series: *The organization that funds Steve Austin's bionic surgery is referred to as the OSO or Office of Strategic Operations. However, early in the movie the letters OSI are clearly seen displayed on the glass door of the office where a high level meeting to discuss the bionic project is taking place. In the subsequent Six Million Dollar Man series only the acronym OSI is used. The is nearly always defined as the Office of Scientific Intelligence although the names Office of Scientific Information and Office of Scientific Investigation are also occasionally used on television, with additional variations replacing the word "Scientific" with "Strategic" in some spin-off media. Using the name OSO in the movie keeps the premise of the pilot more in-line with Martin's Cadin's Cyborg novel, than the series did. The OSO is also depicted in the film as a darker, more "black ops"-style organization than the OSI, as illustrated by Austin's initial reaction that the OSO built him in order to kill people. *Oliver Spencer is Austin's superior, here. This character did not exist in Cyborg, but could be interpreted as an amalgam of the Jackson McKay and Oscar Goldman literary personalities. In the next movie, Wine, Women and War, Oscar Goldman begins active oversight of Steve Austin. The opening credits of Wine, Women and War, however, actively contradict the existence of Spencer by placing Goldman not only in communication with Austin in the moments prior to the crash, but also having Goldman, not Spencer, be the man who convinces Rudy Wells to do the bionic operation on Austin. *Despite the fact that Spencer is portrayed as Austin's superior, he is not necessarily depicted as an equivalent to Oscar Goldman. The fact that the OSI is established to exist in this film, but Spencer is the head of the OSO, makes it is possible to believe that the OSO is a division of the OSI. Indeed, the presence of a female character named Mrs. McKay seems to confirm this. She, and not Spencer, is at the head of the table during which the bionics program is ostensibly under authorization review. Later, after Steve's operation, it is she who conducts the mission briefing. Thus, like the novel, a character named McKay is apparently in a position of high authority. Though a common reading of events is that Oscar Goldman replaced Oliver Spencer — which he clearly did, in terms of on-screen time and narrative importance — in fact it seems more likely that both McKay and Spencer were both dropped in favor of Oscar. It is thus quite easy to believe that Goldman was employed by the OSI at the time of the surgery, with his absence in the pilot explained by the events of . There, it is revealed that he personally got the emergency funding for Steve's operation by lobbying Senator Ed Hill. We can assume this is where he was during the first days following the accident, and that subsequent to the accident the OSO's sepearate identity was lost as it merged into the OSI. *Actor Martin Balsam portrayed Dr. Rudy Wells. He is replaced by Alan Oppenheimer in the next movie and the first two seasons of the series. *The pilot actually strays from the novel by having Austin be a civilian member of NASA. In the subsequent series, he is an Air Force reserve Colonel attached to NASA, as in the novel. The syndicated version vs. the telefilm In syndication, the movie was used as the basis for a two-part adventure called The Moon and the Desert. In this later form, about 30 minutes of extra footage — drawn from subsequent episodes of the series proper — were edited into the production, creating numerous continuity problems. As a mixture of the work of two different production teams, "The Moon and the Desert" does not simply contain "extra" material that wasn't in the original cut. It contains material not ever intended to be a part of the original film. Specifically, "Moon" has footage taken from , and "Dark Side of the Moon". Some of the issues which flow from this re-editing include: *The syndicated version begins with an extended prologue in which Dr. Wells, in voiceover, discusses the Moonshot XYZ mission which took Austin to the moon, and his role in helping keep Austin fit for the mission. The later series makes no reference to a Moonshot XYZ, instead indicating that Austin worked on the Apollo program with Apollo 17 and the fictiious Apollo 19 mentioned at various times. *When Wells speaks to a semi-conscious Austin on board a plane, on the way to the Colorado Springs research facility, the scene is actually taken from an later point where Austin is in Colorado. This replaces a brief montage in the original edit which shows the new mountain locale with some music to generate "mystique." This is one of the only places in which the longer cut actually removes original footage rather than adding. *A few cut lines are adde, some serving to fix problems, as with Steve inside the HL-10 on the ground preflight waving thank you, cut off in the original, heard clearly in the longer cut. Others serve to change the meaning, as when Oliver Spencer says "he's ready for us" and Mrs. McKay (believed by some to be Jackson McKay from the novel) says in the original telefilm "a little R&R, as it were." whereas in TMATD she counters "I'm not quite sure, Oliver. I think perhaps a few days off, a little… R&R as it were." In the original McKay seems to conspire with Spencer, implying that the R&R may be a setup to test Steve, in the re-edit, she simply pushes for Steve to get a break. *"The Moon and the Desert" uses a title sequence from the latter half of the series' run. Thus, it proclaims that Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks are "also starring". This is not entirely untrue, however, as the newly-added scenes from "The Bionic Woman" are inserted into the production in such a way that Martin Balsam's Rudy watches Brooks' Rudy perform the immediate post-crash operation. Later, when the actual bionic operation is performed, footage from the original "Bionic Woman" episode is once again inserted, including footage of part of Jaime Sommers' bionic ear being prepared. *Footage from The Deadly Replay is inserted into the accident footage, bringing the flight stick footage in, doubtless to reduce inconsistency with the later episode. This has the effect of "retconning" how the accident occured. (Among the most notable change is the re-edited version suggests that Austin is nearly able to bring his craft in for a smooth landing, but loses control just above the ground and crashes.) *The music editing is substantially different (though still drawn entirely from Gil Mellé's score), with some cues removed and replaced by others, and many cues repositioned. This has the subtle effect of underscoring the drama in a different fashion, as when Steve makes his first Bionic fist. *A continuity error occurs during the re-created moon landing sequence. Austin is clearly shown making a solo flight to the moon, but just prior to his LEM module taking off, a second, unidentified astronaut is shown on the surface with him. This shot of the two astronauts not only does not match the footage of Austin on the moon from a few moments earlier, but set rigging and studio lights are also clearly visible along the top of the image. In addition, the syndicated version features additional narration by Martin Balsam as Rudy Wells not included in the original telefilm. Balsam recorded new voiceover material, and, as this was done after the series had finished production and gone off the air, its canonicity is debatable. At the end Balsam/Wells states that three years have passed since the events of the telefilm. Although the narration's reference to Moonshot XYZ is suspect, it is actually possible to reconcile aspects of the pilot -- specifically the existence of Oliver Spencer and the references to OSO -- with the continuity of the television series if one considers that Wells' might be altering the facts in his narration to mask certain secret information. Finally, the computer screen text that gives the definition of "cyborg" and begins the telefilm is moved to the end of Part 1 in the syndicated version. The aircraft : Main article: Lifting Body Although one would think Steve Austin was shown flying and crashing only one aircraft, in fact several different craft were involved in producing the sequence. The aircraft that Steve Austin crashes in and that is subsequently featured in the opening credits of The Six Million Dollar Man series was the M2-F2, a lifting body test craft built by the Northrop Corporation for NASA. The crash scene footage is a genuine incident which occurred on Wednesday May 10, 1967 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The test pilot, Bruce Peterson, was seriously injured in the crash losing the use of his right eye, which ended his flying career. Peterson reportedly hit the ground at approximately 250mph, rolling the aircraft six times. He is on record as saying that he hated reliving his accident, week after week, courtesy of The Six Million Dollar Man. Although the crash sequence uses footage of the M2-F2 accident, Steve is shown boarding a different aircraft on the ground - the Northrop HL-10. The HL-10 is distinguishable from the M2-F2 by its glazed nose. It is considered the most successful of the experimental 'lifting body' aircraft.Jenkins, Dennis R.: Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System, Midland Publishing, 2001, pp. 38-39 In the later episode, "The Deadly Replay", it is stated in dialog that Austin's accident occurred while he was flying the HL-10. However, Martin Caidin's original novel identifies the ill-fated aircraft as the M3F5, a fictional craft that did not exist in real life. In the 1987 reunion telefilm, Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Austin refers to the M3F5 crash by name, supporting the novel but conflicting with "The Deadly Replay" and, to a degree, this original telefilm. The M3F5 is also mentioned in several of the episode novelizations. Trivia *The mission that Spencer sends Austin on in the pilot, is based on the second mission in Caidin's Cyborg novel, although in the novel Austin works with a female partner; in the film, he works solo. *Austin's communications with the ground prior to the crash are more extensive -- and completely different -- than that heard in either the followup Wine, Women and War telefilm or the later TV series. *The flight/crash sequence includes detail not mentioned in the regular series opening credits. The most notable difference between the crash as shown here and that depicted in the series credits is that no "blowout" is shown to occur, nor is there any reference to the vehicle "breaking up". The vehicle is shown rocking in the air and ultimately crashing. The re-edited syndicated version, as noted above, adds footage from other episodes to make it seem as if Austin is nearly able to bring the craft in for a controlled landing, only to lose his grip on the control stick at the last moment; this does not occur in the original telefilm. * Dr. Wells mentions that the manual to the bionic arm has 840 pages and that Austin is to be furnished with a copy. * Wells states that the bionic arm is powered by a "nuclear powered electrical generator", and he points to what is clearly a mechanism on the arm. This is contradicted in a later episode , where it is said the arm uses a thermocouple to generate electricity. A thermocouple would look nothing like a generator, which the mechanism Wells pointed to does. *When Austin is running through the desert on his mission, the perspiration is much heavier under Austin's left arm than it is on the right. Apparently, bionic limbs don't sweat. This is supported by a line of dialogue from Rudy in which he states that Austin's circulatory system no longer needs to maintain the three new limbs, just his one natural arm. * Although the growing romantic relationship between Austin and Jean is a major subplot of the film, Jean Manners never appeared again in the series. In the second season episode The Seven Million Dollar Man; a character named Carla Peterson, played by actress Maggie Sullivan, is said to have been the nurse who aided Austin during his convalescence. This seems to suggest that the character of Jean Manners was retconned out of existence in a manner similar to that in which the character of Oscar Goldman replaced that of Oliver Spencer. Another possibility is the character changed her name. * The film makes reference to Austin's bionic eye restoring his vision, with the potential to "transcend normal vision", but other than this reference no special features of the bionic eye are used in the film. Its nightvision capability would not be introduced until Wine, Women and War while the telescopic function wouldn't be revealed until the series proper. *Some noticeable differences between Caidin's concept of the Steve Austin character and the TV version are in evidence. In the telefilm, Austin expresses reluctance towards killing people (though he kills at least one terrorist when he drops a grenade into the cabin of a tank); in Caidin's novel, Austin is depicted as being more willing to use deadly force and does so more frequently. * No calendar year or date is given for Austin's accident, however the later episode "The Return of the Bionic Woman" establishes that Austin has been bionic for "about three years" at that point. Assuming the episode takes place around the same time it was broadcast in September 1975, then Austin's accident could be surmised to have occurred in the second half of 1972. Several episodes (and this telefilm itself) suggest that it took Austin some time to recover from the surgery, therefore the lack of snow in Colorado is not necessarily an error and Austin's first mission might have occurred in the spring of 1973. Gallery Image:Balsam.jpg|Martin Balsam as the first Rudy Wells Image:Stevesnewarm.jpg|Steve's new arm Image:Somethinglikethat.jpg|"Something like that" Image:OliverSpencer.jpg|Oliver Spencer Image:Physicaltherapy.jpg|physical therapy Image:JeanconfrontsSteve.jpg|Jean confronts Steve Image:Whatareyou.jpg|"What are you?" Image:Th-S1E00-29.jpg|Collage from The Moon and the Desert Nitpicks * In this film we see Austin running at full speed without the slow-motion effect later associated with the power, and a clip of him doing a test run from the pilot film would be included in the opening of every episode of the series. What is never accounted for is the fact Austin's non-bionic left arm is seen pumping just as fast as his bionic right arm during his bionic speed run. References Six Million Dollar Man, The